Photo: Outside a pastry shop in PolancoBack from Mexico (Part 2)
So the day at the Embassy was a looooong one... Hail to the very slow bureaucratic process made worse by people not knowing how to deal with a case as simple as ours... It was here we started noticing the blue surgical masks being passed around.
For the very short part of day left after the Embassy visit, we decided to take a taxi ride to the neighborhood of La Condesa: the most up and coming neighborhood in the City. It is here where beautiful Deco and French Colonial buildings coexist with the newest, most hip architecture and design. The best restaurants have chosen to open their doors on the streets of this neighborhood. Minimalist apartment buildings rise around small mansions and urban parks making the mix wonderful and pleasant. The boys had a blast at La Condesa. First, because we got a Taxi drivers who had never driven there (first day on the job) and we had to give him directions- good thing Jevon knows his way everywhere! Second, we found an awesome rock store. The boys got nice fossils to brag about and I got some nice turquoise and labradorite to make nursing necklaces for Santi (I wear them, he plays with them). After our little shopping spree, we found an amazing playground at Parque España were the boys climbed a bit. Unfortunately, I thnik my boys are getting too big for playgrounds! We eventually made our way back to the Hotel after a great Gelato break.
Saturday was creepy quiet. We had already heard about the outbreak of Influenza but were not really sure about its reaches. We knew most public places (museums, libraries, theatres, night clubs) were closed starting Friday evening. As we waited for our breakfast at a lovely little street cafe, a convoy of military trucks drove by. Each truck had six soldiers covered with surgical masks and five big bundles (three feet by three feet) of new surgical masks. I started getting a little bit nervous.
When we arrived to the center of the Coyoacán neighborhood that afternoon, I had already asked around stores for the little facemask with no luck. Then we got another random act of kindness from the locals: I saw a family with a baby around Santi’s age wearing a facemask. I stopped the mom and asked how she had placed the mask so that the baby was not complaining about it. She said that she could help me and right away grabbed a new mask from her purse, her Mom tied an expert knot and instructed me on how to put it on Santi. She said soldiers would go by eventually with more masks for all of us and said goodbye... Santi wore his mask till lunch and then afterwards...
Coyoacán has a wonderful Plaza and it fills up on Saturdays for a street market. Most of the vendors have bad imported tiedye and Indian style clothes, some bad beaded jewelry (locals call them the Hippies), but you can find good arts and crafts and incredible hand woven blouses. We just devoted ourselves to walk around, have some juices, ice creams and pies from the stores I used to go to when I was little and living there.
When we took our cab back to the hotel, the soldiers and a good amount of volunteers from the Department of Health were giving out facemasks to all people... Actually, they were shoving a good bunch of masks at everyone and telling them to wear them.
Sunday, we had a nice breakfast at the little outdoor café and pondered the news that streamed on the old TV set inside the dining room (we sat outside). Schools were closed until May 6th, clubs, movies, libraries, museums... You name it! If it was a place of social gathering, it was closed. And us Mexicans that are such a Social breed! We use packed beyond packed urban transport (buses and subway), we live in tight knit communities and neighborhoods, we love to congregate for strikes, meetings and parties... The Government was asking for the Parks to be vacated too... No human contact unless it is part of your family.
Well, the ride to the bus station was surreal... I had never (in all the 17+ years I lived there and later visits) ever seen the streets of Mexico City with no traffic. No traffic jams is one thing.. No cars, that is kind of creepy. But it was an amazing way to actually see the city. Reforma looked amazing, green, magnificent. The air quality was better than on the days prior. Mexico City was almost too quiet to be true.
TAPO, the bus station, was pretty quiet too. The buses were running as usual, but not too many people were traveling. There were soldiers everywhere giving out facemasks and everyone at the station was wearing one. We all were wearing ours. We had a long bus ride ahead with facemasks.
For the very short part of day left after the Embassy visit, we decided to take a taxi ride to the neighborhood of La Condesa: the most up and coming neighborhood in the City. It is here where beautiful Deco and French Colonial buildings coexist with the newest, most hip architecture and design. The best restaurants have chosen to open their doors on the streets of this neighborhood. Minimalist apartment buildings rise around small mansions and urban parks making the mix wonderful and pleasant. The boys had a blast at La Condesa. First, because we got a Taxi drivers who had never driven there (first day on the job) and we had to give him directions- good thing Jevon knows his way everywhere! Second, we found an awesome rock store. The boys got nice fossils to brag about and I got some nice turquoise and labradorite to make nursing necklaces for Santi (I wear them, he plays with them). After our little shopping spree, we found an amazing playground at Parque España were the boys climbed a bit. Unfortunately, I thnik my boys are getting too big for playgrounds! We eventually made our way back to the Hotel after a great Gelato break.
Saturday was creepy quiet. We had already heard about the outbreak of Influenza but were not really sure about its reaches. We knew most public places (museums, libraries, theatres, night clubs) were closed starting Friday evening. As we waited for our breakfast at a lovely little street cafe, a convoy of military trucks drove by. Each truck had six soldiers covered with surgical masks and five big bundles (three feet by three feet) of new surgical masks. I started getting a little bit nervous.
When we arrived to the center of the Coyoacán neighborhood that afternoon, I had already asked around stores for the little facemask with no luck. Then we got another random act of kindness from the locals: I saw a family with a baby around Santi’s age wearing a facemask. I stopped the mom and asked how she had placed the mask so that the baby was not complaining about it. She said that she could help me and right away grabbed a new mask from her purse, her Mom tied an expert knot and instructed me on how to put it on Santi. She said soldiers would go by eventually with more masks for all of us and said goodbye... Santi wore his mask till lunch and then afterwards...
Coyoacán has a wonderful Plaza and it fills up on Saturdays for a street market. Most of the vendors have bad imported tiedye and Indian style clothes, some bad beaded jewelry (locals call them the Hippies), but you can find good arts and crafts and incredible hand woven blouses. We just devoted ourselves to walk around, have some juices, ice creams and pies from the stores I used to go to when I was little and living there.
When we took our cab back to the hotel, the soldiers and a good amount of volunteers from the Department of Health were giving out facemasks to all people... Actually, they were shoving a good bunch of masks at everyone and telling them to wear them.
Sunday, we had a nice breakfast at the little outdoor café and pondered the news that streamed on the old TV set inside the dining room (we sat outside). Schools were closed until May 6th, clubs, movies, libraries, museums... You name it! If it was a place of social gathering, it was closed. And us Mexicans that are such a Social breed! We use packed beyond packed urban transport (buses and subway), we live in tight knit communities and neighborhoods, we love to congregate for strikes, meetings and parties... The Government was asking for the Parks to be vacated too... No human contact unless it is part of your family.
Well, the ride to the bus station was surreal... I had never (in all the 17+ years I lived there and later visits) ever seen the streets of Mexico City with no traffic. No traffic jams is one thing.. No cars, that is kind of creepy. But it was an amazing way to actually see the city. Reforma looked amazing, green, magnificent. The air quality was better than on the days prior. Mexico City was almost too quiet to be true.
TAPO, the bus station, was pretty quiet too. The buses were running as usual, but not too many people were traveling. There were soldiers everywhere giving out facemasks and everyone at the station was wearing one. We all were wearing ours. We had a long bus ride ahead with facemasks.
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